Theater of the absurdHamas: Gaza youth "corrupted" by Israeli aphrodisiac chewing gum

An Israeli military source has dismissed Hamas claims that the Israeli intelligence service is offloading aphrodisiac chewing gum on Gaza Strip youth in some form of cunning sex-based plan to destabilize the Palestinian territory.

Hamas spokesman Islam Shahwan said: “We have discovered two types of stimulants that were introduced into the Gaza Strip from Israeli border crossings. The first type is presented in the form of chewing gum and the second in the form of drops.”

AFP reports that a Hamas dragnet to capture those responsible for the distribution of the aphrogum began when a Palestinian man reported his daughter had suffered “dubious side effects” from the sinister chewable.

Cops subsequently cuffed members of a gang who apparently helped get the products into Gaza and “admitted during the investigation they were linked to the Zionist intelligence services.” Shahwan insisted: “The intelligence services are aiming to corrupt the young generation by distributing these products among students.”

The Israeli military declined to comment officially, but one military source described Hamas’s claim as “absurd.”

Hamas’s fantasies
Hamas is in the habit of making fantastic claims. Some of them are funny, as is the case with the destabilizing chewing gum. Other claims are more sinister. You will find anti-Semites in every country, but Hamas is the only openly anti-Semitic political movement with a real chance of coming to power.

Two examples:

• Article 32 of the movement’s Covenant refers to an anti-Semitic forgery concocted in late-nineteenth century Russia, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.

• Article 22 of the Covenant repeats Hitler’s charges (Hitler referred to Germany; Hamas refers to the Islamic Caliphate): “[The Jews] were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources.”